Another shed clean up and another old bike comes to light.
This little piece of cycling history is the Giant Airwolf. A bike from the period when Giant started to go it alone with everything that they had learnt from Schwinn.
This bike is running a complete EDGE groupset. This is one of the first OEM groupsets developed for Giant with Suntour gears and Dia-Compe brakes both branded EDGE.
This bike was in fair condition, when it came in, but had obviously been stored for a long time. There was a heavy build-up of dirt and dust and dried grease on it. A few bits had also not survived the ravages if time. The saddle rails were very badly corroded and the tyres and brake hoods had perished. The cable housings had also split and rusted. The handlebar tape was faded almost to white from what appeared to be a silver leopard print.
The spokes were also starting to corrode and the anodising on the handlebar and stem had gone from black to gold. So, the hunt was on for some parts.
Meanwhile, we stripped the bike completely and gave the frame a good clean. Stripped the wheels and cleaned and polished the hubs and cleaned the rims. We relaced the wheels with new stainless steel Mach 1 spokes and chrome plated brass nipples. We fitted a pair of Vittoria Corsa tanwall tyres, that seem to suit the bike nicely.
Then we started the rebuild.
The original bottom bracket was OK, but the finish on the cups had corroded, so we put a new alloy VP Components sealed bottom bracket in. Cleaned up the crankset and chainrings and fitted those. They came up really well, making me think the bike hadn’t done a lot of miles. Then a new headset as the original had also corroded. Followed by a new handlebar and stem.
The original SR Sakae seatpost, just needed a good clean and polish, but saddle was too far gone. Fortunately I had a pre-loved white Selle San Marco Rolls saddle that was in pretty good condition, so I popped that on. I got the derailleurs cleaned up and fitted, as well as the 6 speed cluster and ran a new chain.
The gears shifters are still a little untidy after cleaning, but not a great deal to be done about that. Got some gears cables strung and set the derailleur limits and we had a fully functioning drivetrain.
The brake levers cleaned up nicely and looked pretty good with some new hoods, so I ran the brake cables and fitted the calipers and all that was left really was to wrap the bars. But, what to use?
All the usual handlebar tape options looked a bit flat against the frame. so I started looking for some multi-coloured tape that seemed a bit more in keeping with the bike and the era. I admit, I ended up buying quite a few rolls of different tape until I found something that looked just right.
I think the old-school Cinelli bartape really highlights the groovy purple leopard print on the frame.
A real classic ready for the next vintage steel ride!
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